America & World IV: Trump's Taxing Day

[Dogg Thang]

I feel like you’re thinking very short term. About where tech is now. About where infrastructure might be in just a few short years rather than the longer picture. Kind of like, why do we need cars, because actually I like riding horses and all our roads are set up for horses? Cars are really bad right now in so many ways. And yes it goes far beyond just who is driving them but it would be nuts not to completely revolutionise how this all works. And that doesn’t happen by waiting for everything to be right and doing it in one go. It happens in increments. This is one of them.

Edit: didn’t see Wakka’s post! We both thought of horses!

[Hirst]

I like driving my own car for the same reason I like playing games or cooking a nice dinner. It gives me something for my otherwise useless human body to do and I enjoy doing it. Automate everything and what are we do with our lives, just sit on the couch? Let me go into the work car park and do a handbrake turn, it's the one thing that keeps me from burning the office down.

[Brad]

it's the one thing that keeps me from burning the office down.

Genuine LOL from this

[wakka]

I feel like you’re thinking very short term. About where tech is now. About where infrastructure might be in just a few short years rather than the longer picture. Kind of like, why do we need cars, because actually I like riding horses and all our roads are set up for horses? Cars are really bad right now in so many ways. And yes it goes far beyond just who is driving them but it would be nuts not to completely revolutionise how this all works. And that doesn’t happen by waiting for everything to be right and doing it in one go. It happens in increments. This is one of them.

Edit: didn’t see Wakka’s post! We both thought of horses!

I think we're in agreement here. The replacement of the car by horses is inevitable. Of course they are in many ways self driving.

[Brad]

Space Hoppers could take over from cars. Soup them up a bit (somehow, come on boffins!) and you could overtake slower vehicles by jumping over them, reducing accidents no doubt. Plus potholes wouldn't be an issue. This problem solves itself once you think about it.

[wakka]

Space Hoppers could take over from cars. Soup them up a bit (somehow, come on boffins!) and you could overtake slower vehicles by jumping over them, reducing accidents no doubt. Plus potholes wouldn't be an issue. This problem solves itself once you think about it.

Exactly Brad. We'll let the eggheads in China figure out the details, but suffice to say if you can't see how Space Hoppers will eventually replace all other modes of transport, you are simply thinking too short term.

[Neon Ignition]

The trouble with the horses comparison is they were replaced by something that gave people even more power, more speed, more capacity and more control so really the next natural evolution isn't self-driving cars its each home having a high spec, high powered truck... which WAGS in Chelsea have been migrating too for years

[MartyG]

I like driving my own car for the same reason I like playing games or cooking a nice dinner. It gives me something for my otherwise useless human body to do and I enjoy doing it. Automate everything and what are we do with our lives, just sit on the couch? Let me go into the work car park and do a handbrake turn, it's the one thing that keeps me from burning the office down.

You go on track days.

[wakka]

I for one look forward to the day when I can take an Uber without a human driver. It would significantly cut down on the amount of COVID19 conspiracy theories I have to listen to.

[Hirst]

You go on track days.

I'm not restricting my fun to something I could afford to do maybe once a year. Driving to work is the bit of fun I get do before and after my trip to the human zoo.

[Dogg Thang]

We'll be living in the metaverse in a few years. You can drive in there whenever you like. As long as your employer has approved the time and you are driving only in a virtual vehicle purchased through one of the registered partners and have earned sufficient credits for your recreation time.

[wakka]

Correct. In the future, fun will be automated. We will no longer be doing fun ourselves. You will experience a fulfilling existence as a human battery powering the computers however.

[MartyG]

I'm not restricting my fun to something I could afford to do maybe once a year. Driving to work is the bit of fun I get do before and after my trip to the human zoo.

How much do you think track days cost?

Driving down variable limit motorways or 60 mph limited A-roads with potholes and hidden hazards, queing at traffic lights and roadworks isn't what I find fun. I do get a bit of enjoyment filtering past those queues, but having "fun" on public roads rarely involves adhering to speed limits.

Me at a track day, not doing those things that cost £65, because track days aren't expensive and you can't drive at the limit on public roads and expect to keep your licence for very long, especially not on a bike.



There will come that point where most driving is automated and electric whether we like it or not and even where there is manual input we can expect to see speed limiters, auto brake systems and lane restrictors - these are already being put in new cars, just not mandatory always on systems. Yet.

[Hirst]

I can see it coming, but I don't see the point of welcoming it with open arms. I don't want to live in that lame future from "Demolition Man". I want to live in the cool sewer one with Dennis Leary shouting about Jello and cigars and what-not.

As a general rule of thumb, a car trackday was about £150 minimum last time I checked, though there's no circuits that near here anyway. The usual cost is in tyres and brakes. Depending on car you can generally expect to get through a pair of tyres (or near enough) and likely need either pads or discs soon after. In reality though, I've seen too much irresponsible driving on track to want to risk it - I could have done it for nothing at Silverstone twice. I don't want my hobby to become just for rich folks, neither do I have the kind of money to go out and buy an electric car that I don't even want.

I don't want much in life (and I don't get much either), I just want to drive the local roads and put a smile on my face in my £300 cars like I have been doing for years. If people want their automated cars, they're welcome to it, I don't. It's a way of getting peasants like me off the road. We will just have to agree to disagree.

[Dogg Thang]

Thing is, right now cars kill and maim a hell of a lot of people. And we don't really talk about that because we've accepted it as a societal need - people need to get places. We accept a very high level of casualties for it. It's a high cost. But if we can fulfil that societal need and not have to pay quite the cost? It would seem wrong not to push for that.